Many owners of shotguns, rifles and pistols utilize devices popularly known as "snap caps," which are components generally shaped like a shotgun shell or rifle cartridge, that can be readily slipped into the breech of a gun. These devices are intended to allow the tension on the hammer spring of the gun to be relieved without damage to the firing pin, and typically utilize a spring biased member placed in a central position, substantially corresponding to the primer of the shell or cartridge. Thus, when the gun user pulls the trigger, the firing pin is driven against a central member of the snap cap device which, because of its spring bias, serves to safely dissipate the energy of the firing pin that was driven forward by the hammer.
Although the use of these devices has been relatively widespread, it is also known that these prior art devices comprise numerous parts that bring about increased costs and decreased reliability, that are prone to get out of order, and significantly, the components utilized in these prior art devices need to be replaced from time to time.
It was in an effort to improve upon the prior art by designing a springless device for dissipating the energy of the firing pin, that the basic form of my invention was evolved.
In addition to the foregoing, it is a fact that shooters are greatly inconvenienced by the rules set for many state and national matches, to the effect that a shotgun must be carried in the breech-open position, thus to assure all the other shooters that each person's gun is not loaded, and therefore not likely to go off, with attendant loss of life. However, at such matches, any gun being stored in a gun rack must necessarily be in the closed position, and this serves to defeat the intent behind the above rule.
Not only have I provided in accordance with this invention, a snap cap type device requiring the use of no compression spring, but also I have evolved a type of safety indicator normally contained in the housing of the basic device that, when deployed, clearly indicates to all other shooters that each gun utilizing such device contains no live shell or cartridge in its breech.